monroevillehistorical.org

Henningsen House

Henningsen House, 2000
3890 Logan’s Ferry Road Extension
 

  Modern log houses originated some 80 years ago, when Bruce Ward, a Houlton, Maine telegraph pole dealer, built a log cabin kit for himself from surplus cedar poles. Soon friends and neighbors were asking him for cabin kits too. The company he founded, Ward Cedar Log Homes, grew rapidly and today they still manufacture log homes and cabins in the same northern Maine town.

 The idea for this contemporary log house was born when Tom and Jayne Henningsen  (the original, and current, owners)  decided to build a garage large enough to accommodate their Recreational Vehicle. The structure was to be built using an innovative polysteel system, a technique that employed styrofoam forms that could be interlocked (much like Lego Blocks) to form the walls.   Once assembled by Integrity Construction of Murrysville, concrete was poured into the hollow walls, which became well insulated by their sandwiching styrofoam sheets. The exterior was then sheathed in mortar and faux stone.

 As they planned the construction, the Henningsen’s quickly saw that the site they had in mind would be ideal for a house, and so began to plan for a log house to be built as a second floor on top of what would then become a spacious garage/basement.  They chose a design from the Ward Company’s plan book – the Sedona, which was modified to the family’s specifications.  The component parts were then shipped from the factory to the site on Logan’s Ferry Road, where the Katinsky Construction Company of Trafford built the house in 2000.

 Today the house stands on a rise overlooking a beautifully landscaped setting.   Far from the primitive log cabins of pioneer days, this contemporary home features a modern kitchen, baths, lighting and an energy-efficient heating system.  Yet like those early houses, this home continues to take advantage of the natural insulating features of its cedar wood logs which, in this design, are stacked and screwed together.  The interior is spacious and airy and continues the rustic motif by leaving exposed the beam and truss construction, and making extensive use of finely crafted pine boards and paneling.

 This log house is an excellent example of a modern construction style that has its roots in the 18^th century.